Boris Johnson: why the EU is like a lobster

The Mayor of London looks back on his time as the Telegraph's Brussels correspondent - and reflects on the frustrations and foibles of the European Union

Video by Chris Stone and Kat Hayes

10:00PM BST 12 May 2014

Boris Johnson was posted to Brussels as the newspaper's bureau chief aged 24 - serving in the role from 1989 to 1994.

He jokes that he always had the same introduction ready and waiting: "Britain stood alone last night as...", before adding anything from "Europe proceeded with plans to abolish the prawn cocktail crisp or...abolish the curved cucumber."

He also recalls the "naked and blatant hypocrisy" he witnessed from the British government, in their tendency to say one thing around the negotiating table and another to the British press corps. Mr Johnson says that "even Mrs Thatcher...and her immediate advisers could be quite tricksy about what was really going on."

Watch his reflections on what journalism was like without the intrusion of the mobile phone, hear his thoughts on what went wrong for the Euro - and most importantly of all, find out why the EU is really like "a lobster...with a butter sauce."